Tigers' current playoff run proves Mariners' issues run far deeper than payroll

The Detroit Tigers are one of baseball's biggest surprises this year. A team in the middle of a rebuild still seemed a year or two away ... but since the start of August they went on a run to secure a playoff spot with the best record in the AL over that span.

It seemed like a daunting task as they were set to square off against the Houston Astros, a team that had made the ALCS the previous seven years in a row, in the AL Wild Card series. But they continued their hot streak, sweeping the Astros and outscoring them 8-3. A staff led by Tarik Skubal and one of the best bullpens in the game show what a dominant pitching staff can do some October.

While this offseason will surely include a lot of discussion about the Mariners' payroll, including disgruntled fans complaining about the team not spending big on free agents, the Tigers' success and roster construction may give fans some hope.

Tigers sweeping Astros proves that the Mariners payroll isn't their only problem

There's no question that the Mariners have been one of the most consistently active teams when it comes to making trades and changing up the roster. Seattle had five new starters in its starting nine coming into this year, and considering they will likely see three new infielders and possibly a new DH, it could be more of the same.

They just haven't been able to put it all together, with continued offensive struggles in 2024 holding them back. And that begs the question: would the Mariners be better if they would just increase their payroll to compete with Houston's $255 million payroll, or Texas' $225 million payroll?

The Mariners and Jerry Dipoto have obviously been working within some sort of payroll limitation set by ownership for a few years now, yet the decisions that have been made within those restrictions haven't been enough. Guys like Jorge Polanco, Mitch Garver, and Jesse Winker were at one point very good players and seemingly still in their prime, but we have all seen how those acquisitions have played out.

The fact that a majority of the big-name players that the team brings in to fix their offense have flopped points to the front office and the inability to acquire talent. There obviously needs to be changes in the process that they have in identifying the players to acquire, (to be fair, there are rumors that at some point this year they made changes into the type of players they are looking for) but this offseason is huge.

This front office and team can't take another year of failed offensive experiments. Hitting on the right players to add to this offense is significantly more important than just increasing payroll, which fans shouldn't expect to happen knowing John Stanton.